Jo lives in a small town in southern Japan. She lives with her two children and Japanese husband and is learning more everyday about the world of Japanese agriculture and culture.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Am I growing vegetables or caterpillar houses?

If you want to be a 100% organic farmer I think you have to have a smallish garden, have 24 hours a day to spend in the garden, or have plenty of nets! This year has been a really warm autumn so far so I decided to plant all my broccoli and cabbages under nets to try and prevent a few of the zillion caterpillars that appear at this time of year from completely eating everything. Unfortunately the nets didn't stretch over 3 of the cabbages and the result..... not much left for us to eat! I'm guessing the chickens will eventually get to nibble on these ones. The ones under the nets are doing really well though and I'm guessing that if I want to keep growing cabbages I will need to purchase a few more nets next year! Unfortunately the spinach has also been completely eaten away, but as soon as the weather cools a bit I'll plant another batch and hope that the cold has scared all the caterpillars away....

1 comment:

WOW! That's a catterpillar massacre! We don't use nets but don't seem to get too many caterpillars... hmmmmm wonder if we just have less with all the spraying that goes on in the apples around here? One of the things I love about the chooks though is you never feel you wasted anything just because you didn't eat it!